Dropping Your Guard (And Other Mistakes)
by Orion'sProdigy
Summary: Fate has a twisted sense of humor sometimes, and no one knows it better than Seto Kaiba (except possibly the blonde woman who works as his bodyguard). Sometimes the most innocent things slip past them both and the consequences are life-altering in a very nonchalant way.
1. Chapter 1

He wouldn't have noticed her if it were not for a clumsy intern. A gangly college student of twenty-something H&R had taken in, come to deliver his morning coffee (the young man had lost a bet to his colleagues). He entered the room and immediately tripped over his own two feet as he approached the CEO's desk, achieving the dual purposes of sending the still steaming coffee cup flying at the brunette behind it and earning his head a one-way trip to the edge of the mahogany.

Kaiba looked up from his laptop in time to see the intern start to go down and, though his reflexes were (perhaps surprisingly) stellar, there was no possible way to react in time to avoid getting a scorching coffee bath or to stop the other male from cracking his skull open. As resigned to the outcome as a man like him could be in the span of a few milliseconds, he (figuratively, of course) sat back to wait it out and braced for the burning he was sure would start soon.

Only, it never came.

She was suddenly just _there_. A slender wall of black cloth and lean muscle and blonde bun that blocked his view of the intern and most of the room. The intern was on his side on the floor, utterly unharmed, and, as casually as picking an apple, a hand had reached out and plucked the travel cup from the air.

Seto Kaiba was, for the first time in recent memory, rendered momentarily speechless.

The woman turned around, eyes lowered respectfully, and set the cup on the desk.

"Your coffee, sir," she murmured, voice just loud enough to be heard.

With that, she retreated to stand by the door, waiting patiently for the intern to remove himself from the room.

"Wh-what the-what just happened?" the young man spluttered, glancing around in confusion.

"Get out."

Frantic, the intern scrambled to his feet and, after a rather hasty half-bow, half-spasm, floundered out of the room, quite certain he'd just lost his position.

Silently, the woman closed the door behind him and then glided back to her post by the wall, hands folded neatly behind her back, posture perfect but not stiff.

Kaiba stared at her; he'd come in that morning in a bit of a huff ('emergency' conference calls with investors on the other side of the world at two AM tended to do that to him) and admittedly tired, and he'd failed to notice the new bodyguard. Roland had insisted that he needed more protection after the Pegasus incident and while he loathed the idea of having his privacy invaded upon even a single iota more, he'd grudgingly agreed to hire a few new hands, if only to get his head of security/right-hand-man to shut up.

The other one he'd met yesterday, a tall, well-muscled young man with a spiky blonde pony-tail that did surprisingly little to detract from his intimidating image, what with the expression of utterly professional detachment practically etched into the man's entire persona.

He'd been skeptical at best when he'd learned of Roland's recommendations; the male was ridiculously young, only a couple years out of high-school, and no matter how tough they acted, Kaiba had met enough playground bullies to know that there was only so much sheer muscle and a tough attitude could do to intimidate. The man had proven his concerns groundless so far, and now he was, admittedly, curious about the female standing across the room from him.

She was tall for a woman, perhaps an inch shorter than himself, and she had on a trimly fitted black suit and tie (standard bodyguard attire). Dusky gold hair was pulled into a neat bun, keeping it clear from her dark eyes, which were alert and sharp, scanning the room. The only odd thing about her appearance was the mask, a broad band of black cloth that stretched up from beneath the neck of her shirt to the bridge of her nose, obscuring most of her face below her eyes.

"Sir?" she questioned a few minutes later upon noticing his stare; her tone was distant and as soft as ever.

He frowned; something about her appearance nagged at him, reminded him of something or someone, but try as he might, he could not draw the necessary memory to mind.

"Why the mask?" he asked, because he didn't particularly feel like having to explain himself or dealing with any of the other possible conclusions to be drawn from his scrutiny that might sprout if left unchecked.

"Anonymity, sir, and, admittedly, allergies," she replied blandly.

"Hmm." Anonymity seemed a bit cloak and dagger to him, and allergies rather preposterous, but he could detect no lie in her face, so he turned back to his laptop as a dismissal; he felt her eyes leave him again as well and was quickly reabsorbed into his work.

* * *

><p>First period was English (aka, a load of bull wrapped in the disguise of a well-defined syllabus and a stern teacher) and Kaiba honestly hated the class anyway (he hated most of his classes on principal (idiotic board members forcing him to 'get a technical education' or some nonsense), but 'language arts' was just stupid - he knew how to use a comma, thank you very much), so his already flagging mood (an issue in R&amp;D had him up all night and into the wee hours of the morning trying to clean up his idiotic technicians screw up) was not helped at all by the teacher announcing a prose writing assignment. The crappy school laptops were passed out (he made a mental note to buy the school a decent set when he was in a better mood) and they were instructed to draw on their 'poetic sides' to write a thousand words of prose to 'bolster their portfolios'.<p>

Ignoring the assignment in favor of his own laptop, he contented himself with answering a few emails and checking the progress on his latest set of plans via a remote link to his labs.

The monotony of the class was interrupted about halfway through (just as the teacher was building up the nerve to challenge Kaiba on not doing the assignment) by the arrival of an unfamiliar blonde girl.

"Excuse me," she called, voice and demeanor lazy and calm. "Is this Mr. Lee's class?"

The teacher turned away from Kaiba (who he'd been approaching, looming like some kind of quasi-ominous black cloud) and headed for the door.

"It is. Who are you?" the teacher questioned.

The girl held out a yellow schedule sheet in return.

"Your new student."

The man frowned, examining the schedule intently, as though he feared its authenticity may be compromised, and then sighed heavily and handed it back before leading her over to his desk. He explained the assignment to her and then the girl retreated to one of the few open desks in the back of the classroom (coincidentally directly to Kaiba's left), a laptop in hand.

Kaiba frowned; there was something about her that seemed odd, and he wasn't sure what. She looked normal enough, wearing the standard uniform (and managing to make it look less than hideous/awkward with her casual bearing and slouch), long golden hair falling past her shoulder blades. Her dark eyes were disinterested but soft and almost warm, the corner of her mouth quirked in a bemused sort of half-smile. She had a deep tan and an athletic, tall build.

He could swear he recognized her, but from where, he had no idea; it was like not being able to quite remember a word. He could feel it on the tip of his tongue but he couldn't quite spit it out.

She glanced at him suddenly, arching a brow in an amused way.

"See something you like?" she questioned, her tone an unruffled lazy drawl; she winked at him before turning back to her laptop, flicking it open and signing on and clearly only paying minimal attention to her actions.

In a stroke of stunning wit, he narrowed his eyes and growled as he turned back to his own laptop (not his best comeback, admittedly). She laughed quietly, the sound low and melodic, and brought her attention to her own computer.

"Smooth, _Mr._ Kaiba. Clearly you're quite the raconteur."

_I never told her my name. _

"...How do you know my name?" he frowned deeply, eyeing her suspiciously; there was something wrong with the situation and he couldn't put a finger on it just yet.

This time, when her eyebrow raised, it was with a tad of disdain.

"You're only one of the most famous people in the country. It must be my freaky psychic powers acting up again," she replied, wiggling her fingers at him and pulling a face. "OooOOOooo. Scary black magic," she teased, chuckling to herself as she turned away again. "Gimme a break, Kaiba."

"…Hmph."

"Oh, right, my bad. I forgot you're a world class ass hole. I'll just leave you to your brooding then, shall I?" she apologized in a very not-apologetic tone; her fingers started flying across the keys as her eyes returned to the screen and the assignment.

He blinked once, and then his icy cold front took over and he ignored her in favor of his work (emails and such, not the stupid writing assignment).

* * *

><p>The girl had the same schedule as him. He found it to be annoying (especially because she sat near him in every class) but bearable; she seemed to have stopped openly trying to antagonize him and remained quiet, finishing her assignments in record time and devoting extra minutes to reading a hardback with a book sleeve hiding the title or doodling absently on her papers.<p>

However, she was distracting; he couldn't figure out who she was, and everything she did was practically a secret seeing as she was the only one who knew what she was reading or doodling, and it pissed him off a bit that he couldn't read anything past her lazy demeanor.

Maybe he'd bribe one of the class nerds to sit there instead.

The final bell sounded to end his torture none too soon, and he escaped to his limo quickly, not wanting to waste time (and more than pleased to finally be free of the annoying girl). His new bodyguard, the female one, was waiting at his office doors when he made it to them; she tugged the heavy oak open for him politely and then took up her post against the wall silently.

"We can meet at the library and finish up the project there," the blonde suggested, rubbing the back of her head absently.

Kaiba had been partnered with the new girl for an research paper that their english teacher had assigned; before she joined the class, there had been an odd number and the man had allowed the CEO to work on his own simply for convenience. Now, he was assigned a partner and ordered to cooperate on pain of a failing grade on the paper.

"Not today; I have a meeting," he replied simply, typing away at his laptop; he was checking his schedule.

She sighed in a manner he'd thought reserved for tired and exasperated old teachers who'd resigned themselves to the fact that they could never truly win against the loathesome youths they were meant to instruct.

"I have to work tomorrow. It has to be today if we're going to get it done on time. When does your meeting end?" she asked, rubbing her temples.

"Five."

"Okay. There's a coffee shop with free wifi not too far from your building. We can meet there and finish the paper," she stated, head resting between her palms as she slumped on her elbows over the desk.

"...How do you know that?"

"Kaiba, for God's sake. Really? Are you this paranoid with everybody, or am I just lucky?" she demanded waspishly; apparently she wasn't in so complacent a mood as she made it seem.

He closed his laptop and left in response.

* * *

><p>After his meeting, he settled into his desk and swiftly finished the assignment himself, and then got to work on actual important matters. The male bodyguard in the corner was a silent presence he didn't deign to acknowledge.<p>

* * *

><p>What the hell, Kaiba?"<p>

The tall brunette came to a sudden halt when his chest met a surprisingly imposing obstacle in the form of an outstretched palm. Archer, the new girl, was planted firmly in front of him, blocking his path to his seat; she looked rather annoyed.

"Where were you? I had to write the damn paper on my own," she snapped.

"I wrote it. It's not my fault if you don't check your phone," he replied icily, passing the stapled assignment to her. "I didn't have time to make it after. It was six thirty by the time I got out."

She glowered at him and then glanced over the paper perfunctorily before tossing it at the bin.

"We'll use mine. You're not in depth enough." And with that, she set a stapled sheaf of papers in the submission tray and spun on her heel to stalk away from him and back to her desk.

That stunned him.

_...What the hell is her problem?_

* * *

><p>They had several more group projects to do over the next month and a half (one for chemistry, one for history, and three more for english) and she made a point of working with him in class and then finishing every single one of them herself (sometimes restarting the whole project, in the case of chemistry).<p>

It pissed him off to no end, but he eventually gave up; if he didn't have to do it, then he got more time for his business.

It was in early December that they were assigned a collaborative creative writing piece and her head dropped to her desk in disgust, arms hanging limply over the edges (to the great amusement of Joey Wheeler and Tristan Taylor (she'd made nice with the little band of misfits, much to his everlasting annoyance (because it drew them toward her (and consequently, him and his space) during free time in classes))).

Kaiba frowned at this, hoping that she had more 'creative ability' than he, because he hated assignments like these (they were wastes of time, even more so than the regular research assignments).

"So. We're actually going to have to work together on this, because I really don't like creative writing and I'm not going to suffer alone," the blonde announced when the assignment sheets reached them (four pages minimum of a story that exemplified human characteristics and/or morality).

"...Great." He glanced it over again and then decided he'd ask Mokuba what he'd do; his brother had endless imagination.

"Tell me about it..." she muttered.

"...It's not due for two weeks. Let me think on it," he muttered, tucking it away in a folder.

She sighed and started staring at her computer; that meant that they had nothing to do in class, and while Kaiba had his work, she had nothing pressing to attend to. After a while, she started letting her fingers tap across the keyboard absently, seeming almost unaware of her actions.

"...come up with something already?"

"Hm?" She glanced over at him and then to the screen; her head tilted, expression almost surprised. "Um."

Almost instantly, she snapped the laptop closed.

Kaiba's brow arched.

"No. I didn't," she clarified, clearing her throat and shuffling around the things on her desk in an almost flustered way; she shoved her notebook back into her bag and then tugged out the mysterious book she always read from and disappeared behind it (quite a feat, because the book wasn't large by any means).

"..." Kaiba's eyes rolled and he went back to work.

* * *

><p>The next time the class met, they were once again given time to work on the project. Archer settled into her seat and got her laptop going and then turned to him.<p>

"So...I have a few possibilities. You?"

"Here," he shrugged, handing over a sheet of lined paper; it wasn't his hand writing, a bit messier, but still readable, and the topics were pretty damn fun-looking.

"...Bribe your baby brother?" she guessed after examining the paper for a long moment.

"He was happy to help," he shrugged again, clicking away on his cell.

"Hm...these are so happy," she noted; all of them were situations that could be humorous as well as enticing and morally engaging, and they also all seemed to lead to happy endings.

"So?"

"Just not quite my usual style, that's all," she shrugged, smiling faintly. "Looks like something my own little brother would come up with."

He was slightly surprised at that, but ignored it in favor of a new email. She sighed and started typing.

"Getting along?" Mr. Lee sniffed, looking over her shoulder.

The blonde simply ignored him, continuing to work on the assignment.

Thinking she didn't hear him, he repeated himself louder.

"Not if you keep shouting in my ear," she replied absently.

This led to the man getting all huffy and then assigning her detention for back talking.

"I have to work today. Can I reschedule it?" she requested; her tone was more resigned than irritated at this point.

He eyed her for a long moment with a nasty glint in his eyes; Kaiba cleared his throat, arching a cold brow. Mr. Lee grumbled and set it for a different day.

The blonde glanced at him once, her expression suddenly unreadable and intensely familiar; it lasted all of two seconds before she looked weary and mildly affronted and curious again.

"You didn't have to do that."

"Yes I did; I'm not writing this damned paper myself," he grumbled, passing her the three pages he'd scribbled out with Mokuba's help.

"Mm..." She read through the papers and then thought for a long moment before returning to typing.

* * *

><p>"I finished it, but I want to go over it with you," she informed him next English class.<p>

"Fine," he nodded, setting his phone aside.

She passed over her laptop, letting him read through it.

It was a classic damsel in distress story; a princess in a tower rescued by a brave knight. For all of its cliché, it was well written and surprisingly engaging; the characters were surprisingly well developed for it being a twelve page story.

"...It's okay."

Her eyes rolled and she hit the print button.

"Good enough for me," she muttered, setting her head down on her desk after closing her laptop. "Can you go get that?"

He retrieved it and set it on her desk, leaving her be after setting up a folder in front of her because she looked so god-awfully exhausted and that little voice in the back of his head that he'd come to associate with Mokuba (ie, his conscience) started nagging at him again.

* * *

><p>Kaiba sighed gruffly, readjusting his purple coat on his shoulders as he got to his feet; it had snowed just recently and he had a press conference to take care of on the steps outside his building; he'd given a rather generous donation to the city's orphanages for the holiday season and the public apparently wanted to know about it. His bodyguard (the blonde woman was on duty today), followed him silently.<p>

Mokuba ran into him as he manage to squeeze through the doors, puffing, "Hey Seto!"

"What are you up to?" he questioned sharply, pausing; he didn't like it when his brother wandered around without supervision.

"Nothing; I was looking for you. I had a question about my math homework... It can wait," he added, glancing back at the crowded front of the building.

Kaiba sighed, watching him for a moment, then ruffled his hair; he'd have words with Roland later about keeping a closer eye on the boy.

"Get inside," he instructed, stepping past the boy and heading for the crowd; a podium had been set up for him at the top of the steps.

His bodyguard stationed herself a discreet distance away, to his left, as he took his place and gained control of the crowd.

He was in the middle of speaking when there was a sharp crack that cut through the frozen air and the he was suddenly on the snowy concrete and there was weight over him and several more cracks and screaming and the weight left him and his eyes came open to see the blonde woman charge into the crowd, trailing flecks of red and holding a knife in one hand; there was an abandoned gun on the ground in front of him.

He laid still, absolutely stunned for about five seconds, and then his other guards were on him, dragging him to his feet and hustling him inside. He shook off their grip as they reached the eaves that shadowed the doors to the building, staring rather openly as the blonde dragged a crumpled form over to them, blood sheeting down one side of her face and her right arm curled around her ribcage.

She panted harshly as she got closer, stumbling slightly and then going down barely three feet from his nose.

"G...got him..." she gasped, looking up at him from the ground.

"...Good job," was all he managed before his phone snapped out and he was ordering for the nearest ambulance.

"Geh...heh heh...baka..." she grunted, wheezing a chuckle; her face contorted and her eyes rolled back into her head and her head fell.

In about thirty seconds, his personal medical team for the building was doing what they could for her, keeping her stable enough for the time being.

It was about at the point that the medics moved her to a stretcher that he realized he didn't even know her name. He picked up her blazer, wiping the blood off on the name badge tucked into an inner pocket. His eyes widened, shock hitting him for the second time that day.

Beneath the picture, the name read 'Gerilynn Archer'.

"Seto! Seto! Are you okay?!"

"Hn-yeah. I'm fine," he said, glancing at his brother as the boy rocketed into him.

_She's...a high school student? How the fuck did I not realize that?_

He hugged him tight, wiping his watery eyes, "I couldn't see what happened, and when the medic team rushed out..."

"I'm fine," he repeated, pulling the boy closer; his eyes were still on the blonde girl on the stretcher.

The older blonde guard appeared and climbed into the back of the ambulance after they loaded her.

A gray haired guy appeared at his side, wearing the black suit and tie.

"I'll be taking over while my cousins are indisposed," he informed the CEO, narrowing his eyes at a photographer edging closer dangerously.

The eldest nodded, turning on his heel and sweeping into the building once the vehicle was gone.

* * *

><p>AN:

So...I'm writing again. Slowly. In between assignments and classes and studying. Who knew college would be so demanding? Anyway, this is sort of a new attempt at the same concept as one of my other fics that I started years ago and am honestly unsure whether I'll ever finish because...meh...I just dont really like it...I feel like I messed it up somehow and blah. I don't want to talk about it. So here you go. I was browsing ffnet a while ago and noted that there were few Yu-Gi-Oh! fics that really caught my attention and even fewer involving Kaiba, so I figured I'd try and address the problem...hopefully this is okayish. I know lots of people don't like the OC thing, but there are gonna be some in this fic, so...yeah... Please let me know; I'm going to need the motivation to find time to keep it going, so updates might be a little slow, but I'll try and get to it once every week or two. Hopefully this comes out better than the last one. So...please R&R...thank you.


	2. Chapter 2

She woke up and gagged; there was a breathing tube shoved down her throat and it was _so_ coming out right then. Her hand fumbled to it and removed it, her throat burning as she did so; she coughed a few times harshly, wincing at the pain in her chest the action caused.

_God I hate hospitals..._

Groaning, she rubbed at her bandaged chest, taking a moment to steady herself and do a quick assessment of her injuries; her head was a bit tender where she'd been hit by the assassin's lucky swing with a pistol and the bullet wound in her chest ached, throbbing with her heartbeat. Her throat was raw from the tube. She had a cotton mouth and a headache, but she was breathing and a glance at the monitor by her bed showed her heart rate to be stable.

_Good...now to get rid of the stupid IV..._

"No way; leave it in," Gia ordered, Shane at the door keeping watch as he strode into the room and laid a hand on her throat to soothe it.

"Brother..." she rasped in complaint, pouting. "It itches."

"I know. But leave it," he ordered again, more gently. "Good job, by the way."

"Yeah, yeah...I wanna go home," she whined, her voice a little smoother thanks to his magic. "Can't you just treat me?"

"No; they got you here before I could convince them to let me take you home. Now you'll just have to wait it out."

"Ugh...I could just play dead and then escape from the morgue," she suggested, a rather morbid smirk on her lips. "Stupid Kaiba, calling 911..."

"He was worried. Especially when he saw your name badge."

She winced.

"He saw it?"

"Yup. Sent some of your favorite chocolate, too; apparently, it speeds up recovery," he chuckled.

Her nose wrinkled in confusion.

"He what?"

_He sent chocolates...? No. Probably something corporate...or maybe his brother._

"Either way, Shane said they tasted great."

She sighed, shaking her head; she should have expected that.

Sheepishly, her little brother passed her the chocolates, "I only had three."

"It's fine," she replied, passing them back. "I'm actually really thirsty. See any water?"

He trotted out a moment before returning with a bottle of water and a bottle of Dr. Pepper. She took the former and struggled momentarily to open it (the IV in her hand was uncomfortable and prickly to work with) and then took a couple tentative sips; she sighed softly at the cool relief.

Shane babbled about how awesome she was and how glad he was that she was okay and how everyone was thinking she was awesome. She let it wash over her, not really listening as she faded in and out of consciousness; there had to be morphine in her IV, because it was the only thing strong enough to make her brain fuzzy like this.

* * *

><p>"...eels up to it; he insisted I bring her the assignments... No problem if she doesn't finish them."<p>

"Hmmmooo's there?" she groaned, rubbing her eyes and grumbling a few choice curses at the drug-induced fog in her brain; she swore she knew that voice (and that scent) but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"I have a meeting to get to...In about an hour...Is she doing alright?" the question was gruffly asked.

Annoyed now, she shook her head sluggishly, like a dog with water in its ears, and hissed when the motion upset her wound; the pain, however, helped to clear her mind and wake her up, and she repeated the action and opened her eyes and pushed herself upright to look around the room properly.

Seto Kaiba was standing in the doorway, speaking quietly with Gia; Mokuba was placing a box of candy on the nightstand, whispering with Shane happily.

_Ugh..._

She reached for the lever thing that controlled the recline on her bed and then gave up with a curse when the blasted IV caught on the bed rails; she piled her pillows up so she could sit up properly. It made her skin crawl to be in a position of weakness such as hers.

Mokuba touched her arm gently, getting her attention, and then pressed the remote for the bed into her palm. She stared at the device for a few seconds and then pressed the button and readjusted her pillows again to adjust to the new incline.

"I hate this," she said, loudly and a tad obnoxiously, knowing her brother would hear and understand (she absolutely despised being treated like some kind of invalid when she was perfectly capable).

"Oh, shut up," he groaned teasingly, tucking the work away as he walked over. "I'm sick of you acting like a cranky elderly woman in a care home that doesn't allow pets, so she couldn't bring her forty cats with-ACK!"

The blonde looked on innocently, pretending she hadn't just thrown a bottle of water at him.

"So you brought my homework?" she directed at Kaiba.

"Yes," he nodded, gesturing to where Gia left it. "Along with notes."

"How thoughtful," she smiled benignly. "Say, I have some really great ideas I'd be willing to sell to you if you would be willing to forge some discharge papers and-ACK!"

"No," he replied simply. "...Thanks..."

"Ugh...worth a shot..." she muttered, glowering at her brother as she nursed the top of her head. "Isn't there a rule against hitting people when they're down?"

"Not written."

"Then gimmie a piece of paper and a pen."

Gia rolled his eyes.

"Should have hit you harder."

"Jerk...well, thanks for the homework, I guess. Mr. Lee's winter assignment, I assume?" she directed at the Kaiba, ignoring her brother.

"Mmhm. There's written directions."

"Ah." She frowned happily at the ceiling (the morphine was catching up to her now). "Is that a spider?"

"No. It looks like a blood stain."

"Oh...I wanna go home." Her eyes flicked to Kaiba. "Thanks. How are you feeling?"

"...Uh...Fine," he muttered, staring at her as if she'd just stripped in front of him.

"No shock?" she questioned pleasantly, eyes drifting around the room at random.

"No."

"Mm. Good...Your head's okay? I hit you pretty hard. Sorry about that. I was in a hurry," she replied, frowning slightly again.

"...I've got to go; I have a meeting. Mokuba?"

"Eh...I should probably come. I can pass some papers for you," the boy smiled, touching fists with Shane and then snagging his brother's hand.

"See ya," the blonde grinned, waving enthusiastically.

The girl eyed her little brother's actions with mild interest for a moment and then raised a hand tentatively and mimicked his waving, smiling broadly at the achieved effect.

Mokuba laughed and waved at her, and then Seto tugged him hurriedly from the room.

Gia just face-palmed in his corner; his siblings were impossible sometimes.

* * *

><p>"You know...you probably shouldn't have done that," Gia sighed; he was sitting in a chair at her bedside, elbows on knees and chin resting in his hands.<p>

She looked over at him, her expression unfathomable as she regarded him.

"...I couldn't help it. It was instinct," she said quietly after a long pause, turning her gaze to her fingers, which were twining into knots in her lap.

"...I kinda figured," he nodded resignedly, rubbing a hand over his face and looking old all of a sudden.

"They'll never suspect, you know," she put in, breaking the silence that stretched after his remark. "Kaiba doesn't even believe in magic."

"Mm...it's just dangerous...if our names got out, who knows who would hear about it and come looking," he replied, lacing his fingers under his chin to keep himself from messing with his hair (a nervous tic that came out when he was feeling stressed).

"I know..." A small smile curved her lips suddenly. "Can you imagine Kaiba's reaction?" she asked, her voice slightly teasing. "The man who spends his life trying to estrange himself from magic hires a family of dimension traveling hybrids as his bodyguards...heh...love to be a fly on the wall when that news was broken..."

Gia rolled his eyes at his sister, though the corner of his mouth lifted slightly and he nodded slightly; there was irony to be found in that thought.

* * *

><p>She made it out of the hospital with two days of the term left; she'd done most of her exams remotely, but certain teachers (aka, Mr. Lee (aka, Mr. Ass-hole)) insisted on her sitting the exam in a classroom setting, and she was bored anyways. Her head wound was nearly healed and the bullet wound was a mere annoyance at this point thanks to her prodigious healing rate (the result of the magic that ran thick in her blood and her natural vitality (a gift of her mixed blood)), so she pulled on her uniform, gathered her finished homework and her school bag, and drove to school.<p>

Kaiba seemed surprised to see her.

She ignored him in favor of handing her homework in to Mr. Lee.

"You'll have to make up your exam after school."

Her eye twitched.

"But I'm here now," she pointed out.

"But we've moved on. So, after school. Take your seat."

"...Sir, this is an _exam day_. What exactly do you propose we 'move on to'? We go on break for two and a half weeks _tomorrow_," she stated, eyes narrowed.

"I'm giving an assignment. Which you would know about by now if you took your seat," he glared.

Biting her tongue, she turned away sharply and went to her seat, simmering silently; with the aches of her wounds came her temper.

Kaiba slid a piece of paper over to her and then continued on his phone; it had the stupid assignment on it, with detailed instructions written in his neat scrawl. She arched a brow but scanned over the instructions and started scribbling.

Class ended soon after, thankfully.

She headed to her next class, settling into her desk after turning in her homework; it was more tiring than it should have been to walk between classes and she could feel a headache building. Kaiba stayed quiet for the rest of the day. That was fine with her; she didn't have the energy to deal with him.

* * *

><p>"Are you planning on working Christmas Eve andor Day?" she asked him on the evening of the twenty-third; it was a week later and her wounds were nearly healed, so she was back to work.

"No. Mokuba never lets me."

She dipped her head and returned to her post.

He continued to tap away on his computer. He still marveled a little internally at the vast difference between her work self and her school self; such a facade must had been difficult to keep up, but he understood it completely (it was the same thing he did, after all).

Around eleven thirty he shut down his laptop and packed up his briefcase, getting to his feet.

"I'm done for the night. Don't bother showing up tomorrow or the next day," he said as he walked around his desk and headed for the door; she followed him out and into the elevator as usual.

"Sir?"

"Hn?"

"My brother asked me to inquire whether you and Mokuba had plans for Christmas dinner."

"...Not really. Why?"

"He asked me to invite the two of you."

"...Hn."

"...text me your answer then, please," she stated as they crossed the lobby and exited the front doors.

"Mm."

* * *

><p>"...Mokuba. The Archers invited us for Christmas."<p>

"Really?" He looked up at his older brother, curious.

"Yes... I didn't know if you wanted to go."

"...well...do you want to go, big brother?" he asked. "I think it would be fun, but...I know you don't really like that stuff most of the time..."

"Hn...If you would like to go, then we may as well."

"You sure?" Mokuba asked, though his poker face was rubbish (as always when they were in the safety of their home) and Seto could easily see the grin pulling at his lips and the happy glow in his eyes.

"Positive."

"Awesome!" He fist pumped and then turned back to the coffee table, picking up the other mug of cider. "Sit and toast with me, Seto!" he grinned, offering the mug to his elder.

He did his best to do so cheerfully.

"We have to grab them presents!"

"Presents?" The elder Kaiba was wary now, sipping at his cider ad watching the fire.

"Yeah. It's polite," Mokuba stated, munching on a cookie. "...by the way...speaking of presents...can I open one now?" he asked, puppy-eyes on full blast.

"...No."

"But Seto...it's tradition...one present on Christmas Eve..." he pouted.

"Kidding. Go ahead," he rolled his eyes.

Mokuba grinned and poked his brother in the side sharply before dashing over to the Christmas tree and selecting a present carefully.

"I can never tell when you're kidding anymore...hmmm...I think...this one," he decided, selecting a wrapped box.

"I don't think you want to open that one yet," Kaiba remarked, arching a brow; he honestly wanted his brother to wait, because that was a gift that he'd been wanting for quite a while now.

"...okay...how about this one?" he sighed, picking up a different box.

Kaiba rolled his eyes.

"Go for it."

The boy eagerly tore off the paper and opened the box to reveal a pair of pajamas with Blue-Eyes patterns on it. He grinned widely and hugged his brother, and then proceeded to struggle out of his current pjs in favor of the new ones.

Seto shook his head at the boy, amused despite himself.

"Merry Christmas, Mokuba."

* * *

><p>"Seto! Seto, Seto, Se~to!"<p>

"Mmph...what?" he mumbled, opening his eyes to see that the vibrations in his bed were indeed caused by Mokuba jumping on it.

_Oh...Christmas..._

He pushed himself upright, scrubbing a hand through his hair.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!"

"Okay, okay..." he sighed, getting out of bed; he needed coffee.

The boy pressed his mug into his hand and bounced down the stairs.

_Came prepared...hmph..._

The brunette followed the raven down the stairs, settling on the couch to watch Mokuba open his presents, sipping his coffee blissfully.

"You have some, too, ya know," he grinned, pushing over a good pile of presents that hadn't been under the tree the night before.

Seto rolled his eyes.

"You didn't have to do that, Mokuba," he sighed, watching the boy start opening presents.

"Well I did," he sniffed, examining his new pair of headphones excitedly.

He set his coffee down and started unwrapping his own presents.

One was a personal coffee machine, to be put in by his desk; another was a new jacket, and then there was a picture of them both. He smiled faintly at the gifts, rolling his eyes and reaching over to ruffle Mokuba's hair.

He grinned and hugged his brother tight.

"Are you sure we should bother with gifts?" Seto asked; he was behind the wheel of his car, Mokuba at his side. "What if they didn't get any?"

"Then that'll make up for not bringing a dish!"

"...fine," he sighed. "But I don't know what to get."

"I do."

"...hm."

* * *

><p>"Merry Christmas!"<p>

"Merry Christmas," Shane grinned back; he'd answered the door and was currently wearing a rather fuzzy green sweater with an 'S' on it. "I'm so glad you guys came!"

The two were ushered into the (frankly, huge) house by the blonde boy.

Gerilynn was snapping at the silver-haired man that'd been filling in for her, a wide smirk on his face; Gia was leaning against the counter, looking unimpressed when the blonde snatched her cousin in a headlock and noogied the top of his head until he had a bald spot.

"Hey! You brat!" he growled, glowering at her as he frantically smoothed his hair back down; he'd elbowed free.

"Heh," she panted, rubbing her torso. "You deserved it you-"

"Hey! Don't ignore our guests!"

"Huh?" They looked up at the same time.

Mokuba beamed and waved.

"Oh, you came," the blonde girl blinked, straightening up and acting as though nothing had happened.

"Heh. More brats..." the grey haired guy sighed. "I'm Kell. Their cousin," he introduced carelessly.

"Nice to meet you," he beamed wider, trotting over to set the wrapped boxes by their tree.

"Welcome," Gia greeted, emerging from the kitchen taking off a pair of oven mitts. "I'm glad you decided to join us."

Shane and he fist-bumped and then the youngest raced him out back, abandoning Kaiba to fend for himself.

"Hungry?" Archer offered, smiling slightly tentatively. "Shane insisted on cookies..."

"No, thank you," he replied, glancing around once before sitting in a chair by the counter; he felt out of place here.

"Cider? Eggnog? Promise I didn't spike it," Kell grinned from across the counter. "I'm afraid we don't have much in the way of fine china, your majesty, but I'm sure-ack!"

"Don't be an asshole," Archer growled, drawing back a fist threateningly.

And there it was; the ice in his eyes and veins. He looked out the back window, seeing Mokuba messing around with Shane, how happy the kid was, and kept his mouth sealed shut.

"Hn."

"Kaiba? C'mon. I've got something I think you'll like," Archer called, standing at the door to the kitchen.

He blinked once, sliding to his feet and following silently. She led him through the house to a spacious garage filled with expensive looking cars and then through a small door in one wall and into a huge workshop; she proceeded up a set of stairs to a platform that formed a second level. There was a couch and a desk with a number of computers and laptops on it, a rolly chair in front of it and a workbench along the opposite side.

"I was serious about those ideas," she said, snagging a laptop and settling on the couch; she patted the space beside her invitingly. "But you don't have to pay me for 'em."

His brow arched.

"...If this is because of your cousin's behavior, I don't want it."

"It's not," she replied, arching a brow. "I don't care what he does. In fact, I thought it was pretty funny. But I do know what it feels like to be the outsider. And I don't particularly like decorating cookies. So here we are." She powered up the laptop.

"...I don't need your pity," he muttered, but sat anyways; there was something about this girl that threw him for a loop every single time he made the mistake of passing comment. He didn't know what it was; he wished he did. He hated not knowing.

"It's not pity. It's empathy. I don't do pity," she stated. "It's pathetic and I hate being given it myself. But empathy allows us to learn from one another, and now I'm tired of speaking of such things. Here. I noticed you working on something like this last week."

So they spent the rest of the afternoon going through her files.

"Oi. Geri-chan. Bring your buddy. Dinner's ready," Kell called around five.

They sighed and headed up, though Kaiba was deep within his thoughts already. They settled at the table in the empty spaces.

"All right! Let's dig in," Shane crowed happily.

His elders rolled their eyes and started in on the food as well.

It was actually a pretty decent feast; afterwards, Mokuba grabbed the four presents he'd picked out and brought them to the others.

"Oh, you didn't have to do that," Gia said, smiling all the same as he accepted it. "We're just happy to have you."

"That's why we did," he beamed, bouncing excitedly.

Gerilynn got a leather jacket, a really nice leather jacket. She ran the material through her fingers, marveling at the quality.

"Thank you," she said, looking at Kaiba.

He shrugged, "I thought it went well with your bike and car."

Her lips quirked into an amused smile.

Gia got a t-shirt, but it was a pretty cool shirt; it had some logo about 'mess with me, I'll mess up your face' or some jazz. Kell ended up with something similar and then was promptly ordered into helping Gia cleanup. Shane got some kind of video game that he and Mokuba immediately took off with.

Archer shambled out of the room with a glance at Kaiba, the jacket firmly wrapped around her.

So he casually followed after and they made a run for it when Gia turned around.

Chuckling, she trotted off into the depths of the house, occasionally throwing him glances that almost seemed challenging, as though daring him to keep following.

He followed, of course; he was not one to back down from a challenge.

Eventually, she slipped through a door and when he stepped through it after her, she was gone. He looked around the room, determining it to be a large bedroom.

"I'm going to have a drink...you can join me if you want," she said, suddenly behind him; she brushed past him, heading for glass doors that seemed to open onto a balcony. There was a silver flask in one of her hands and a shallow cup in the other, and she went through the doors without waiting for him to answer.

He hesitantly followed after; there was no way he was taking any alcohol, and it was not because he was underage or afraid to make a fool of himself.

She was sitting on one of the two chairs on the balcony, the flask on the floor at her feet and the cup in her hand, filled to the brim with liquid; there was snow scattered around the edges, frosting the railing that ran the perimeter, and it caught the moonlight and reflected it intriguingly. The expression on her face as she stared up at said moon was so lonely and sad it made his chest ache a little where his own iced-over heart resided.

"You don't have to drink." She sipped at the liquid, her nose twitching slightly. "This is horrible stuff anyways...got it from my cousin's stash."

"Hn..." He didn't ask; it was for the best.

Her eyes slid over to him, an unfathomable expression in them.

"...you surprise me sometimes."

"...Nice to know I still surprise people."

"Mm...I drink for the ones who cannot any longer. The ones I've lost." She downed the last of the alcohol and then set the cup down next to the flask with a soft 'clack' before straightening up and staring off at the moon. "Just so you don't go jumping to conclusions."

"...For the record, I wasn't."

"Thanks for that, then..." she murmured.

"Hn."

They sat together in silence for a long time.

"Well...Merry Christmas, Kaiba," she said, getting to her feet; the moon was high in the sky by then. "I think I'll retire for the night, so I'm afraid I'll have to evict you." She dusted her palms, standing up. "Thank you for sitting with me."

"Mm... Merry Christmas," he muttered, heading out.

She smiled slightly after him.

* * *

><p>AN:

Hi again. You got two chapters of this as a sort of teaser. Let me know what you think of it (it's self-beta read so...) and if you see anything that seems off or odd or not good or good or whatever please tell me (constructively!). No telling when the next chapter will come out; I've got three exams within the next seven days, so...yeah...please review? Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

Heaving a mental sigh of contempt, Seto Kaiba took his seat in his first period English class and glanced around the room once before drawing out his laptop to get to work on; he'd had a long night dealing with business partners from other parts of the world and it'd cost him a few precious hours of work on the latest upgrade to the duel-disk system (which he was juggling with reviewing and modifying plans for the new theme park branches and supervising R&D and monitoring the company's financials). The break had ended far too soon, in his opinion.

Students started to trickle into the room as the minute hand traveled sluggishly around the clock, the noise level in the room steadily rising as friends greeted each other and began to gush about their holiday escapades. This was all to be expected, though when he glanced up out of annoyance, he noted something that was off, missing from his expectations; Archer was nowhere to be seen. Usually she was the second one into the classroom, after himself, of course.

His eyes narrowed slightly; he was a bit surprised at himself for bothering to notice, but then, he reasoned, he did spend a ridiculous amount of time around the girl (this was especially true now that he knew her occupation), so it was only natural that he'd notice her absence…right? After all, he was naturally a solitary individual, so after becoming accustomed to having another person (other than Mokuba, of course) around so much, noticing them missing was normal…but then that would be implying that her presence actually felt natural, and that was a rather troubling thought indeed.

He huffed faintly, grinding his teeth and turning his attention forcefully back to his laptop. What concern was it of his if she was late to school? She was just some girl he was forced to spend time around…who'd risked her life to save his…and shared her home with him… But what did that matter to him? It was her job, after all, to shield him from harm, and he'd only 'shared Christmas' with her family (not her!) because Mokuba was apparently now best friends with her little brother…

'_That's enough. Get out of your head. You have work to do,'_ he told himself sternly, glowering at the screen and pointedly making a few corrections to the code he'd been inspecting.

The teacher was just calling the class to order (after bitching at Kaiba until he put his laptop away (he was still answering email under his desk using his phone)) when the door opened and in strode Archer, ignoring the teacher in favor of hobbling to her desk in dignified silence. The hobbling was presumably due to the bandages around her left knee and shin; these were complimented by similar wrappings around her right arm.

One of his eyebrows arched before he could help it; she'd been relatively uninjured (he was certain she had to still be recovering from the bullet she'd taken) when he'd seen her at work two days ago.

The teacher scowled at the girl for a good minute and she stared back until he started class once again, pretending the interruption hadn't happened.

The class progressed sluggishly until they were given a reading assignment and then ordered to pick a partner to present their analyses of their given works of fiction. Kaiba sighed silently (this was just perfect for the first Monday after break) and unwillingly glanced at Archer; she caught his eye and nodded slightly, shifting her desk a couple inches closer to his.

"This is going to be annoying," she sighed wearily, rubbing at her temple with the hand that wasn't bandaged; now that he was looking at her directly, he thought she seemed miserable. There were dark circles under her eyes and her general expression seemed to radiate a sort of resigned world-weariness not often found in someone so young.

"…What?" she asked, a frown tugging at the corner of her mouth as she stared back at him; realizing he was staring, he turned to the poem they'd been assigned.

"Are you going to do this or am I?" he asked, looking at the sheet of paper pointedly.

Her brows arched faintly but she turned to the poem as well.

"I'll handle it," she shrugged as her eyes skimmed the lines. "You can go back to whatever you were working on under the table…" She dug a highlighter and a pen from her bag as she spoke; she put the highlighter between her teeth and started marking up the stanzas left-handed.

He watched her work out of the corner of his eye for a moment, and the thought of asking the obvious question nagged at him faintly in the back of his head, but then it would have seemed like he cared (which he didn't), so he repressed the urge and turned back to the emails awaiting his attention.

* * *

><p>It was lunchtime before he found out what had happened; he was just passing through the cafeteria on his way to the much quieter courtyard outside when he noticed Yugi and his dorks settling around her with concerned looks, Wheeler practically screeching the question at her. His stride suddenly slowed and changed course and he knelt within earshot to straighten a shoelace that looked like it might come undone (it was a complete coincidence!).<p>

"What the heck happened?" Wheeler demanded, as loud and annoying as ever.

"Don't be rude, Joey," Gardner scolded, though she looked just as curious.

The blonde girl just shrugged slightly, poking at the food on her tray un-enthusiastically.

"It was stupid. I was messing around with my brother and I stepped in a hole and twisted my knee."

"Ouch!"

"That sucks," Taylor remarked sympathetically.

"What about your arm, though?" Wheeler persisted.

She had the grace to look sheepish.

"I sorta landed in a fire-pit…burned my arm pretty good when I caught myself," she explained, frowning slightly at her arm.

There were several more exclamations and condolences offered and he, deciding that his shoe lace looked sufficiently secure, straightened up and continued on his way to the courtyard. He glanced around once as he reached the door and saw her staring directly at him; her brow was arched faintly, and while she still looked tired and old and resigned, there was faint bemusement written in her expression. Irritated, he shoved the door open and escaped the loud, cluttered room.

* * *

><p>"So when do you want to look over the presentation?"<p>

Kaiba looked up from his laptop, arching a brow rather snidely; he was settled in his usual hiding spot on a relatively secluded bench in the courtyard of the school. It was lunchtime and it was Wednesday.

Archer was standing before him, arm and leg still bandaged; she looked marginally less exhausted, the weariness replaced with her usual lazily casual demeanor, her shoulders slumped and her hands in her pockets.

"Because you do have to actually speak during the presentation to get a grade for it," she continued after a few seconds of silence on his part, "And I've never been much good with ventriloquism."

He narrowed his eyes slightly, unimpressed.

"Email it to me."

She didn't budge, apparently mulling.

"I could just show you it now," she remarked, shrugging the shoulder that the strap of her messenger bag was slung over. "Then you could tell me which parts you want."

Irritation prickled up his spine.

"Is there a reason you didn't bring this up in class?" he questioned a bit snappily; they'd been given half the period to work on their presentations.

"I finished it at the end of the period," she countered, staring back at him disinterestedly; a hand lifted to scratch at her nose absently. "Is there a reason you have to be difficult about this?"

Further annoyed by her antics, he turned back to his laptop and settled to ignore her; it worked well enough in most situations (even Yugi was starting to give up trying to bother him when he was working at this point). His hopes were shattered when the bench creaked slightly as she settled beside him, pulling a slim laptop of her own from her bag and flicking it open.

"Great. I'll just bring it up then."

He spared the time to send her a glare before he turned back to his work.

"Mmhm. Yes. Thanks. I mean, it wasn't exactly a difficult assignment, but I do appreciate the gratitude. I'm glad you were able to use the time productively."

His laptop was suddenly gone from his lap, replaced immediately by the girl's; there was a presentation open on the desktop.

Growling, he made to snatch his computer back from her.

"You're not supposed to touch things that don't belong to you," he growled.

She easily moved the (extremely expensive) piece of technology out of his reach by way of her long arm, holding it off to the side with her bandaged hand; his eyes narrowed and his lips pulled into a frown as he glowered at her audacity.

"I'll give it back. I'm not even looking at your stuff. Just give the assignment a glance and then we can both be on our merry ways," she sighed placatingly.

"You're being a child," he sneered, turning to the screen and somehow making the simple little action aggressive.

"Am I?" Her brows arched. "I don't know what I did to piss you off but remind me not to do it again."

He ignored her and her stupid implications and skimmed over the PowerPoint, adding his initials to the slides he was willing to discuss before shoving the computer back at her and holding out his hands pointedly. She passed his laptop back willingly.

"Don't touch my stuff."

"Yeah, yeah…I just emailed it to you, so try to look it over at least once…there's no need to be so pushy about it, ya know? I'm not about to get all 'soft' on you because of the recent events," she added after a moment, closing her laptop and tucking it into her bag, rearranging the items around it meticulously. "I thought we were both more professional than that."

With that, she closed her bag, shouldered it, and wandered off.

He stared after her, nonplussed; it felt as though he'd taken part in an entirely different conversation (if the interaction could be called that), and he wasn't sure he liked what that other conversation had implied.

* * *

><p>"I don't know…it looks healed to me," she remarked, eyeing the slightly shiny patches of skin where her burns were nearly healed on her arm. "Can I ditch the bandages please? You have no idea how much they itch." Her gaze flicked up to her older brother where he was standing in front of her.<p>

"No. You'll get an infection," he sighed, shaking his head and carefully applying more of the goo he'd been preparing; it was a light purple color and it smelled of something like a mix between dirty gym socks and low tide.

Her nose wrinkled as her super-sharp senses were assaulted by the odor.

"I'm pretty sure if I get an infection it's your fault. Can't you just magic it away?" she huffed, her good hand going to cover her nose and mouth.

"For some reason the spells won't work," he muttered, corners of his eyes creasing and mouth curving into a look of distaste. "What possessed you to pour a random substance all over your arm? I thought you were supposed to be the smart one here," he pointed out, the remark a tad barbed.

Her lips pursed and she looked away; she'd had blood all over her arm and how was she to know that the canteen had been full of some weird acid? Who the hell kept acid in a canteen anyway?

"You could at least fix my knee."

"No," he disagreed, finishing with the paste and wiping his hands on a cloth. "You can deal with it or fix it yourself. I've warned you not to run off on your own so many times I can't even count. If you'd listened to me, you might not have been tricked by that guy." His brows were arched slightly in a severe look.

"Hmph." Despite herself, her cheeks heated slightly; it'd been a rookie mistake. The damn ninja had been more cunning than most, and had employed voice-changing abilities to catch her off guard; she'd stepped right into a snare before she'd even realized what she'd done. She cringed slightly as the memory washed over her.

_She'd taken off into the woods, determined to finish clearing out the problem on her own; his brothers could handle the remaining enemies in the clearing with ease, and she could sense someone else hiding in the tree line, biding his time. The idea of a post-battle ambush made her twitchy and so she was going to put an end to it before it could begin. _

_Several feet into the trees, she'd heard it and stopped dead, changing directions immediately and without a second thought. It was a young, male voice, that of her little brother, and it had cried, "Help!" _

_It really was a stupid mistake; her foot had caught in the noose and she'd just had time to swear before it yanked her leg out from under her, twisting her knee and slamming her head against the ground and then a tree trunk as she went up and the ninja emerged from the trees, grinning and laughing viciously._

"Are you done yet?" she questioned, eyeing the purple tinge the salve was giving her skin warily. "I want to wash this off before it stains permanently."

"Ten more minutes," he instructed, washing up the mortar and pestle he'd mixed the stuff in.

Annoyed, she looked away again and sighed, letting her thoughts wander.

_That stupid presentation is tomorrow…*sigh* I hope he isn't going to be an asshole about it…I don't have the patience to deal with it this week…_

After all, her exhaustion had little to do with the actual snare-trap incident; it'd been the news they'd received afterwards. They'd returned to the village they used as a base in that world and learned that yet another of her comrades had fallen. It made her blood boil as much as it made her feel like her insides had been scooped out, leaving her hollow and empty of all things vital, especially because she blamed herself utterly (never mind that she hadn't even been present when it'd happened). The circumstances leading to his death had been her fault (in her mind, anyway)…

It broke down pretty simply, really; her psychotic uncle had recruited her power-hungry teammate/ex-best friend and was now using him to pick off her remaining friends (not that there were that many) one by one in hopes of unhinging her into joining his crazy campaign to…well, they really weren't quite sure what his ultimate goal was, but it hardly mattered. The point was that he seemed to make it his purpose to make them miserable, and he generally did a bang-up job of it. He'd come very close to driving her truly insane, after all…the thought of herself in those days was enough to make her shiver in disgust.

"You can wash it off now," Gia said quietly, pulling her out of her head with a light flick to the forehead. "…it wasn't your fault."

She averted her eyes and went to the sink to carefully rinse the purple from her wounds, wishing she could see something other than red in the water that ran off down her arm and disappeared down the drain. Complaining about having to give a presentation with a difficult teenage boy for a high school English class seemed rather pathetic compared to the rest of her troubles…

* * *

><p>"Hi, Seto."<p>

"Mokuba," Kaiba greeted quietly, not looking up from the financial reports he was skimming; it was around seven on Thursday night and he was nearly done for the evening. He was just waiting on a phone call from a business associate before he headed home. The male Archer was standing guard as usual in the corner.

"So, Shane got this cool new video game that like just came out yesterday and we aren't going anywhere this weekend and I was thinking maybe it might be fun to stay over at his place tomorrow and play video games and stuff all night…what do you think?" the boy asked, eyes widening in Kaiba's peripheral vision as he folded his hands behind his back and rocked on his heels excitedly.

Kaiba arched a brow, glancing over at his brother; he'd never made such a request before. While he was fairly certain the kid had 'acquaintances' from school, he'd never seemed to be terribly close to any of them. He supposed this was probably a good thing; kids were supposed to make friends, after all. Still, allowing this would mean letting Mokuba go out of his immediate reach for quite a while…

"…how long?" he asked after a moment, frowning slightly.

Mokuba, sensing a victory, smiled brilliantly in a way that his brother usually caved to no matter the request.

"Just Friday night; I could go home with him from school and then stay most of Saturday and maybe Saturday night, too."

The CEO looked away, frowning a little more. Mokuba seemed really excited about this…and he supposed that he would be safe enough, considering he'd be staying with people who'd already proven themselves willing to give their lives for him (or one such/ person, anyway).

He heaved a sigh; this was what he got for raising Mokuba on his own. The worries of father, mother, and brother combined.

"…fine. But call me Saturday morning to let me know if you're planning to stay another night," he relented eventually; the sheer excitement in those eyes was hard to resist.

"Awesome!" Mokuba beamed, latching onto him in a brief hug before he could dodge; he settled down a little once he'd let go, eyeing his elder in a way that warned Kaiba of an impending lecture that would probably be related to his tendency to overwork himself. "You almost done for the night?"

Rolling his eyes, he turned back to his monitor.

"Fifteen minutes. Then we can go home."

The boy seemed to consider this proposal for a moment before nodding approvingly and going to lounge on the couch in his office, phone in hand as he undoubtedly texted his new buddy.

Kaiba pushed a hand through his hair and sighed wearily; children were tiresome.

* * *

><p>"You're having a friend over this weekend, then?" Gia asked as he walked through the garage door into the house, dropping his keys and slipping off his shoes; his little brother was painting something in the kitchen, easel set up in the center of the room as his brush danced over the canvas. A slightly acrid scent of hot metal mixed with the earthy tang of the ink the boy was using to draw his attention to his sister; she was seated at one end of the kitchen counter, soldering apparatus spread around her and tongue between her teeth as she peered through a magnifying glass and deposited tiny beads of molten metal on a circuit board.<p>

"Yeah. I figured you wouldn't mind," Shane shrugged carelessly, biting his lip as he examined the canvas carefully before adding a few more strokes. "You said we weren't busy this weekend and I didn't want to get bored and I'm dying to try the co-op mode on my new game."

Their sister hissed slightly, mumbling curses under her breath as she shook her finger; she'd gotten a little solder on it. Unceremoniously, she grabbed the cup of water Shane had used to mix his ink earlier and plunged in her finger.

"Who are you having over?" she asked.

"Mokuba," he replied, grinning to himself as he worked.

"Really?" She tilted her head curiously; she hadn't quite expected Kaiba to allow his brother to stay over…then again, he _had_ let himself be dragged over for Christmas…she wondered if the boy realized how much power he truly had over his elder brother.

"Yup. So when you pick me up from school tomorrow you can pick him up too."

"Mmkay…" She turned back to her circuitry, musing to herself.

"…is that from my TV?" Gia asked after a moment, leaning down to peer at her work suspiciously.

She widened her eyes slightly, though she couldn't quite pull off the innocent look with the smirk on her lips.

"I needed material for my project and you barely use it anyway…if you would buy better computers, I wouldn't have to cannibalize your TV's, too."

It took a moment for the implications to sink in; his eye twitched and his hands started strangling the air.

"What did you do to my computer?"

"Oh it still works. You don't mind binary outputs, right?"

His fists clenched around the imaginary neck in his hands before he took a deep breath to calm himself and turned to the fridge wearily. His sister smiled faintly and patted the top of his head as she reached past him to steal the last apple.

"Just trying to keep myself busy, brother."

"And thank God for that…" he sighed, shaking his head; the last time she'd run out of things to do, she'd taken off on one of their inter-dimensional missions alone and come back bloody.

The crunch of an apple being bitten was the only response she offered him.

* * *

><p>Kaiba sighed as he stepped into his house Friday night; he stood for a moment in the foyer, staring around a tad blankly, before it registered that Mokuba wouldn't be bounding to greet him like some sort of deranged puppy tonight. He slipped off his shoes and hung up his coat, making his way to the kitchen and depositing his briefcase in the hall safe as he did so. He ate the dinner left for him by the cook and then washed up his plate and found himself slightly at a loss; Mokuba made a habit of forcing him to sit through a movie or play a game with him on Friday nights.<p>

Frowning, he eventually decided that an calling it an early night wouldn't be a bad thing and headed up to his room; he spent about half an hour lying in his bed telling himself to stop worrying about his brother (they'd been apart before; this was no big deal) before he mumbled a curse and migrated to his office. If he wasn't going to sleep, he could at least get something productive done.

* * *

><p><em>Six hours playing one game? Those damn kids have certainly got some drive…<em>

Sighing, Gerilynn rolled over for the umpteenth time, rearranging her pillows and readjusting her blankets. The battle sounds from the boys' game (it was some kind of fantasy role-playing thing) were starting to grate on her hypersensitive ears and set her teeth on edge. There was a monstrous roar and then the clanging of shields and swords (the game was incredibly detailed and realistic, apparently) and she jumped slightly, muscles tensing to react to the coming threat.

Cursing, she kicked away the blankets and stormed to her workshop, cranking up her radio and settling at a table to work on an engine she'd taken from an old dirt bike; there was clearly no point wasting time trying to sleep.

* * *

><p><em>Coffee, coffee, coffee…I need coffee…<em>

She mumbled to herself under her breath absently as she searched the cupboards of the usually well-stocked kitchen; she finally spotted the red plastic bin on an upper shelf and snatched it, only to freeze slightly at how light it was. Opening it revealed barely a teaspoon's worth of coffee grounds.

Annoyed, she closed the lid and chucked it at the garbage can. She hadn't slept a wink the previous night and while she could feel exhaustion pressing down on her, she wasn't 'sleepy tired' at all and she was in the middle of a project and she just wanted some damn coffee, was that so bad?

Grumbling, she strode back upstairs and dressed in jeans and a warm sweater; she was going to get her caffeine fix one way or another. She left a note for her brothers (Gia was out who knew where and Shane and Mokuba were still passed out in the boy's room) and grabbed the keys to her bike (it was easier to park in the city) and headed out.

* * *

><p>Kaiba cursed quietly, staring at the broken coffee machine on his counter; his kitchen staff didn't work the weekends and neither did the housekeepers. This meant his usual morning caffeine dose would be lacking, which meant that his day was going to be horrible (he'd slept not at all and his temper tended to become unmanageable even with the luxury of coffee on such days).<p>

Fifteen minutes later, he slid into the driver's seat of his car, dressed in his usual black pants and turtle neck, his coat tossed into the passenger seat with his briefcase. Before he left the garage, he checked that Mokuba had yet to call him (it was perfectly normal, he assured himself; he'd probably been up all night playing games and was now sleeping it off).

He was just striding through the door of his usual coffee shop (it was somewhere like halfway between his home and his office) when he encountered an unexpected force coming from his left side as someone else tried to enter the shop at the same time; this caused both he and the other person to knock into the wall to either side of the indented door.

"Watch where you're going, you-Kaiba?"

He turned his glare on the (soon to be) unfortunate person to find himself staring at brown framed with locks of gold.

"I could say the same to you," he commented snidely, stalking on into the café.

Archer followed him in after a few seconds.

"I believe the term is actually ladies first, you know," she remarked, seeming to be in a rather irritable mood herself.

He shot her a look and then, because for some reason everything about this girl seemed to be a challenge, he said briskly, "You can put hers on my tab as well."

The girl behind him and the one behind the counter looked slightly startled.

"You're buying me coffee?" Archer's brow rose quizzically.

"Just order something," he grunted, crossing his arms irritably; somehow it felt like a victory.

She frowned deeply but ordered her coffee; the odd boost in his mood disappeared when she decided to follow him to his usual high-top by the window and took the liberty of filling the usually empty seat across from him.

"The boys were still out of it when I left. Pretty sure they fell asleep around five this morning."

Great. Now she was going to try to make conversation with him. This was perfect. At least he was gaining information about his brother.

"So I wouldn't worry if you don't hear from him for a while," she added, tilting her head and staring at her coffee cup.

He grunted vaguely, looking at his phone pointedly in an attempt to end their interactions and hopefully prompt her to go away. Unfortunately, it seemed as though she either wasn't taking the hint or she was as comfortable in silence as he was. The silence got awkward for a few moments as he waited for her to leave, but once it became apparent that she planned to finish her whole damn latte right there, clearly invading his space, he huffed silently to himself and forced his attention to his inbox. Surprisingly, the awkwardness melted away quickly once he stopped acknowledging it; he supposed it was probably due to the fact that they spent a lot of time silently ignoring each other.

It almost startled him when she got to her feet as he was reaching the bottom of his coffee cup and the virtual stack of emails.

"Well, I'll see you around," she said casually, tossing her (apparently empty) cup. "Thanks for the coffee."

He just pretended he wasn't watching her out of the corner of his eye as she strode out the door.

It took him a few minutes to realize that the air around him felt oddly empty.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So another chapter…I'm not sure how I feel about it. Especially the ending…I'm trying to keep Seto in character and whatnot and it's incredibly hard to build a realistic relationship for him. I'm hoping I'm not rushing anything or whatever…meh…I don't know. Let me know what you think, please? Thanks. **


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